What the Rochdale boss said about his side's loss at Portsmouth

The lowly Dale were condemned to a 3-0 defeat at Fratton Park last night.

Goals from Ryan Williams, Steve Seddon and Christian Burgess ensured the Blues moved up to third in the League One table.

And while the result suggests Rochdale were beaten comfortably, there were plenty of aspects Barry-Murphy was happy with from his side.

The Spotland boss said: ‘It’s kind of deja vu. We dominated for large periods. There’s no shame or embarrassment on our part.

‘The players put into practice everything we asked and it was an immensely disciplined and resolute performance that would be easy to get distracted by the scoreline but I won’t be.

‘I just wanted to explain to the lads at half time how good they’d been and really reaffirm how much I believed we could score in the second half to draw or win the game.

‘We were always of the belief we would need to score here because Portsmouth always score in literally every home game.

‘People won’t see it but it was a very good night for us in many ways. It was tough for both teams because of the conditions.

‘We showed our identity in every minute really so I was very happy with loads of aspects.’